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Figure-skater Ando Miki is in the news for her connection with a new singer called Ayaka 絢香, who just put out a song called "I Believe," which says that believing in yourself is where everything starts. The two girls were born on the same day (1987.12.18). They have corresponded, and Miki is using the song during practice. She says "the friend she hasn't met" has inspired her to include a quad salkow in her skate. Women's singles start this week, I think on Tuesday. Go Tazusa! I mean, Miki.

Only they had to go and fuckup the ending. - 4th place? That's bullshit! Good ending for Pete though. One could tell that he already knew what she wanted to tell him. Yet even better, seemed that she knew that he knew as well.

Only they had to go and fuckup the ending. - 4th place? That's bullshit!

Spoiler for ep.12 + consideration:

That fourth place didn't make any sense! I watched the rank after the free, she was second with 114 points, third was the italian with 100, fourth a croatian with around 88. Considering the short has half value than the free, and she skated divinely too, how could she possibly have lost 26 points to go out of the podium

Bitter sweet ending, not always miracles happens , but it's just me or after the ED the impression was that she was still apparently cluelessly yelling at a not some better definite point?

Agree on the great series, my rate should be more or less a 8.5 out of 10. Thanks to both C1 both Arienai-Conclave. ^^

As a side note for the real race, yesterday. I obviously was rooting for my country fellow, Carolina Kostner (who ended 9th), but after having seen she was out of the games all of my support went to Shizuka Arakawa, I loved how she skated... a goddess ... and the judges fortunately were not drunk, in this case
Curious yet awesome, that Japan actually has gotten a golden medal in figure skating, I was glad

I guess this has been one of the rare times reality actually surpassed events in an anime.
I really liked it how this series (or the fansubs rather) timed so well with current world events.

I do wonder though -- is the ending all that? Or is the manga a little more elaborate
on what happens to Tasuza and Pete afterwards? Or has the manga not ended yet?

The manga hasn't ended. In fact, just the first volume was published recently. The novelle series, on the other hand, is finished at three volumes (I'm pretty sure). Although I haven't read it. Reading novels in japanese is a very time consuming task for me...

On a side note, I'm making a special encode of the gold winning free skate as capped off of japanese tv Come to arienai's irc channel in a bit if you're curious. It's pretty annoyingly similar to the american coverage.

I just have to say what a WONDERFUL anime and thanks so much to the fansubbers who did this. I hadn't heard much about it, zero hype, so I wasn't really expecting great things. I was really pleased with it though. It is short, but sweet and the plot totally drew me in.

Spoiler:

I gotta admit, I really wish that more could have gone on between them as a couple. It really cracked me up on episode two when she inferred that she couldn't masturbate anymore. I was kind of wishing that he would have been in a coma, like in I Won't Let You Become A Star by Yuu Watase. (Hey if Midori can become Seiji's hand, then someone can survive a plane crash in an anime right? *Winks for clarity that she is joking *) There is a part of me, though, that can appreciate a not so happy ending and enjoy the plot for what it was...including the ending.

Two thumbs up from me on this anime! I wish there were more, but I still like it for what it is.

It's so great to see this anime getting some of the love it deserves. I really think it's among Kawasumi Ayako's best roles. I think she made this show. The story was good, but she was fantastic. She played the tiny-voiced Matsuri in Ichigo Mashimaro, then the lovably bitchy Tazusa, and now she's playing a deep-voiced tough girl (and I mean tough) in the wild magical-girl parody Dai Mahou Touge. Now that's range.

The novel, which is 6 volumes long, splits in the middle. Switching the main character from Tazusa to Yoko, Tazusa's sister. End of volume 3 I believe is when Pete leaves...and the story is picked up by Yoko who's apparently learning how to figure skate now, and the boy she's in love with too...*sulk* Pete isn't mentioned I think....even though I can't read it...I can basicly tell what's going on by the pictures...

Even if there's going to be a second season...I think it's going to be about Yoko.

The novel, which is 6 volumes long, splits in the middle. Switching the main character from Tazusa to Yoko, Tazusa's sister. End of volume 3 I believe is when Pete leaves...and the story is picked up by Yoko who's apparently learning how to figure skate now, and the boy she's in love with too...*sulk* Pete isn't mentioned I think....even though I can't read it...I can basicly tell what's going on by the pictures...

Even if there's going to be a second season...I think it's going to be about Yoko.

Speaking of Yoko, that's one thing I don't understand. Are Yoko and Tazusa full sisters? Half sisters? Completely unrelated?

According to the flashback in episode... 10 or so, Tazusa's parents got divorced when she was quite young, she looked about 6-8. So that means that Yohko was born right when they got divorced? Or is Yohko actually Coach's daughter from some previous marriage?
It's never made clear in the anime so if anyone knows the facts from the novel I'd be curious...

It really cracked me up on episode two when she inferred that she couldn't masturbate anymore.

I rarely do this, as I never really laugh out loud on the Internet, but LOL. You have a dirty mind, I like it. Tazusa was bent out of shape in episode 2 because she didn't want to crap. Remember her stomach was bothering her the whole time? And then she rushed to the bathroom at the end?

A good anime. Like so many have said, not the greatest; scenes were reused like crazy, the animation never really passed mediocre, and even the story itself was kinda predictable. The characters made it for me, as well as the ending. I wound up really liking Tazusa, and it was refreshing to see a fairly non-violent way she could get pissed off at Pete.

Is anyone keeping up with the manga? I guess I'll have to track it down.

I wish I'd seen this before the Olympics. i'd have paid more attention to the ice skating. Here's a belated Congratulations to Miss Shizuka Arakawa. Kinda funny how anime appears to be prophetic with Olympic winners (Tamura "Yawara-chan" Ryoko and all that).